Does Sunderland have a Heroin problem?

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Spike said:
Recreational drugs have little to do with heroin use to be honest mate

There is a massive problem with heroin in Sunderland and the contributing factors are largely socio-economic. Disconnected, disenfranchised people use heroin and usually in the comfort of their own homes or in their dealers house/drug dens.

I wouldn’t agree that it’s not a visible problem here, but treatment is quite easy to access in Sunderland, you can get prescribed an opiate substitute within a couple of weeks of referral. There is perhaps less of a street homeless problem and less of a complex and enduring mental health problem in Sunderland. When you go to bigger cities and see people on the streets often heroin is the least of their problems, they are usually spice, alcohol, benzos, crack users etc, have lived on the streets for years, have been to prison multiple times, disengaged from drug/mental health/housing services

The club scene is not related at all in my opinion, clubs are frequented by generally working class and above youngens using cocaine, MDMA, ket, psychedelics and relatively few of these people will develop addiction problems. Addictions services are generally populated with the poorest people in society and generally are a bit older. Most drug deaths are men in their late 30s, 40s + from heroin, benzodiazepines, alcohol and more likely a combination of all the above.
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You sound far more informed than me mate but the two things I can’t see past are #1 the big cities full of money and opportunity have far more visible heroin problems and #2 in my experience young people get into drugs via ecstacy and coke, nobody starts on crack or smack. they start by partying on a weekend on the lighter duty stuff and a minority get sucked into a full time habit. I guess this is a mixture of people who are bored/disenfranchised (shit excuse in my view) or lower levels of willpower/self control. Shit circumstances all round either way. People who deal hard drugs are worse than paedos in my view.
 
Spike said:
Recreational drugs have little to do with heroin use to be honest mate

There is a massive problem with heroin in Sunderland and the contributing factors are largely socio-economic. Disconnected, disenfranchised people use heroin and usually in the comfort of their own homes or in their dealers house/drug dens.

I wouldn’t agree that it’s not a visible problem here, but treatment is quite easy to access in Sunderland, you can get prescribed an opiate substitute within a couple of weeks of referral. There is perhaps less of a street homeless problem and less of a complex and enduring mental health problem in Sunderland. When you go to bigger cities and see people on the streets often heroin is the least of their problems, they are usually spice, alcohol, benzos, crack users etc, have lived on the streets for years, have been to prison multiple times, disengaged from drug/mental health/housing services

The club scene is not related at all in my opinion, clubs are frequented by generally working class and above youngens using cocaine, MDMA, ket, psychedelics and relatively few of these people will develop addiction problems. Addictions services are generally populated with the poorest people in society and generally are a bit older. Most drug deaths are men in their late 30s, 40s + from heroin, benzodiazepines, alcohol and more likely a combination of all the above.
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Good post.

Wouldn't go as far as to say there is a massive problem with it in Sunderland though.
 
HANDSOME_DAN said:
You sound far more informed than me mate but the two things I can’t see past are #1 the big cities full of money and opportunity have far more visible heroin problems and #2 in my experience young people get into drugs via ecstacy and coke, nobody starts on crack or smack. they start by partying on a weekend on the lighter duty stuff and a minority get sucked into a full time habit. I guess this is a mixture of people who are bored/disenfranchised (shit excuse in my view) or lower levels of willpower/self control. Shit circumstances all round either way. People who deal hard drugs are worse than paedos in my view.
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Gangs from big cities send people to smaller places to sell their drugs and slowly fuck up these places too, with all the money going back to London, Manchester etc
 
West_Winger said:
It’s pretty embarrassing like. They see the period after the war as some sort of mythical era to hark back and return to, when in reality it was utterly, unrelentingly shit.
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Socialist ideals played quite a part in the years following the war, too. Mass council house building, the formation of the welfare state and our wonderful NHS!

Edit - also, quite a few people were smack heads after the war due to niggling war wounds which they successfully treated with opioids, as medical-grade diamorphine has very little to no debilitating effect upon the body, and you can happily live your life whilst technically being a drug addict.
 
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Left For Dead said:
Our lass in Sunderland hospital for gall stone and in a ward with Heroin addicts, some with cists off injecting in leg, some with damaged neck off injecting. Didn't realise this was a major thing, and more associated with the bigger cities. Anybody else noticed this?
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Hollycarside/Ryhope was rife with the stuff when i was growing up in the 90s. Few i went to school with ended up on it. Moved away when i left school and didn't mix in the same circles when i came back so no idea what it's like now.

PhilSAFC said:
They all started on weed as well.
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Well, they all started on booze but thats just an inconvenient truth because we all like a pint.
 
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The Fitter said:
Lambourne in Berkshire is a very wealthy little place in Berkshire which also has the highest ratio of heroin addicts in the UK. Why? Well its the main village in the vale of the white horse where all the horse racing training goes on, and nearly all the jockeys live in Lambourne.
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I used to live there. Don't remember heroin being a provlem 15 years ago, cocaine and dope yeah but not heroin. Neither did you get the same problems that run alongside like burglary.

Not sure what your point is about jockey's though? As they are all drug and alcohol tested randomly and would lose their license straight away. I'm not sure I'd fancy galloping a thoroughbred at 30 mph smacked off me tits either.

It's probably more likely to be a local problem than one from the influx of stable staff. There is very much an "us and them" in the village.
 
Left For Dead said:
well the nurses at the hospital said they have seen large increases in last 2 years - heroin has been around of centuries and sunderland has always had its problems - something has changed for a spike in heroin use - it must be supply....funny that, in a port town...
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Liverpool a lot of drugs seem to come in.

Every second high level dealer seems to be a scouser and make no mistake, there must be a HUGE amout of port and airport authorities and workers who are ‘in’ on the importation of drugs or turning a blind eye under the threat of violence. The streets are literally awash with every type of drug imaginable.
 
Titus said:
Gangs from big cities send people to smaller places to sell their drugs and slowly fuck up these places too, with all the money going back to London, Manchester etc
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I think the poor villages are often quite vulnerable like, a bad combination of bored and uneducated kids hanging round looking for kicks. Its a shame that lads don’t get together and do these village smack dealers over more often, total scum that ruin communities.
 
Mackem DJ said:
Liverpool a lot of drugs seem to come in.

Every second high level dealer seems to be a scouser and make no mistake, there must be a HUGE amout of port and airport authorities and workers who are ‘in’ on the importation of drugs or turning a blind eye under the threat of violence. The streets are literally awash with every type of drug imaginable.
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Liverpool has been at the forefront in drugs,from the 80s onwards when a large amount of people started taking it and now a lot of the influx into other areas,Wales,Lancashire,the NE all the way upto Scotland is mainly due to county lines involving Scousers,almost every day the local paper has drugs gangs either getting sentenced for dealing or involved in shootings
 
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HANDSOME_DAN said:
I think the poor villages are often quite vulnerable like, a bad combination of bored and uneducated kids hanging round looking for kicks. Its a shame that lads don’t get together and do these village smack dealers over more often, total scum that ruin communities.
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Are you thinking what i'm thinking? I'm thinking pit yacker superheroes.

Pitman and whippet would be belting names.
 
jaycee1878 said:
Liverpool has been at the forefront in drugs,from the 80s onwards when a large amount of people started taking it and now a lot of the influx into other areas,Wales,Lancashire,the NE all the way upto Scotland is mainly due to county lines involving Scousers,almost every day the local paper has drugs gangs either getting sentenced for dealing or involved in shootings
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Yep. Noticed that for a long long time. Has to be something to do with the deepwater port they have there surely.
 
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